Memoirs of a random traveler- Part II-Argentina

Memoirs of a random traveler- Part II-Argentina Mar del Plata Reviews

Another gorgeous day and I have about an hour or so before my flight from Florianopolis to Rio, Let's see where I left of talking about BsAs?..ok, Let's talk about drivers in Argentina, both in the big city and small costal town like Mar del Plata. Oh, 1st of all they have the widest streets I have ever seen, not all obviously, but the main ones, like Av 9 de Julio was 9 lanes both ways, to cross the street it took two green lights fast paced or runningJ Going back to drivers, at night they don't use lights, only when nearing the intersection (or in the smaller city of Mar del Plata where not even one street had any lights or stop signs) to let other cars know your coming and not stopping. We asked who gets to go 1st since both ways are pretty much the same size, not like one street is smaller and has to make way to other, guy told me it's whomever gets there 1st basically. I'm surprised there weren't more accidents; we came close number of times!

When we asked a cab driver about this, 1st he played stupid like it was normal and why are we even asking him about it, then he admitted and told us it's out of courtesy to the incoming drivers, they don't want to blind them…go figure. Another thing about argentine driving is that they never stay in their lanes, the zigzag between cars, everyone drives where they want and it looks like one big mess, even though streets are nicely painted and you can see your lane. They don't know what blinkers are for and when they are about to stop or slow down they put on hazard lights..Funny.

OK, that's enough about drivers, I've seen crazy ones in Paris, Rome, so it wasn't much of a surprise. After few days in BsAs we head down south to above mentioned Mar del Plata , which is about 6 hours south (by car/bus) It's a picturesque, gorgeous city right on the South Atlantic, reminded me of Nice, France. Most Argentines go there for their summer holiday (or to Punta Del Este, Uruguay..which is gorgeous also)

We checked in to a nice little hotel (only 120 pesos a night) by the beach and spent few days here enjoying the beach and of course the night life. Anyone going to MDP I highly recommend going to the beach called "La Marocchia" it's sort of a Ibiza (but smaller) with beds on the sand, DJ spinning great tunes, people dancing on the beds or around them, bars, all young, model-looking like people there. You can rent a bed for 20 pesos a day and have VIP service all day. Siempre VIP. Couple of clubs there are fantastic "Chocolate" (opens at 2am-till 9am I think) we left at 7am, mostly younger crowd 18-19. Another was called "Sobremonte" (place was HUGE and more mid 20's there and more posh) it looked like a party-theme park. 6 different clubs, couple of outside stages, many many outside bars between all those clubs (each playing different music) few restaurants, we ate at one and it was lovely. 35 pesos got you a full 4 course meal and VIP privileges all night long. Restaurant looked very similar to Asia De Cuba in WeHo. Great Design and right next to the pool. Great time there. Paparazzo's were there, TV cameras, interviews, models, playboy bunnies you name it, all in the VIP section (which was huge by the way) Yeah, it was like being back in LA, except we had a front row seat. Not my thing, but cool to see. Friday, don't even know what date exactly, but we are heading back to BsAs for a weekend of partying, before we head out to Brasil. We went to Mambo and Opera Bay, but really big and cool partying, Opera was pretty far out I remember, about 25 minute drive by cab.

It was 15 pesos to get in and they had dancers on the bars, two different type of music (club music and more of a Latin beat, which was actually pretty cool)

Sunday we were flying out to Florianopolis, we booked a flight in Mar De Plata on Friday after eeciding we needed a change of scenery.